WASHINGTON | Truth is, retired Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf didn't care much for his popular "Stormin' Norman" nickname. The seemingly no-nonsense Desert Storm commander's reputed temper with aides and subordinates supposedly earned him that rough-and-ready moniker. But others around the general, who died Thursday, December 27th in Tampa, Fla., at age 78 from complications from pneumonia, knew him as a friendly, talkative and even jovial figure who preferred the somewhat milder sobriquet given by his troops: "The Bear."

That one perhaps suited him better later in his life, when he supported various national causes and children's charities while eschewing the spotlight and resisting efforts to draft him to run for political office.

ST. LOUIS | Fontella Bass, a U.S. soul singer who hit the top of the R&B charts with "Rescue Me" in 1965, has died. She was 72.

Bass died Wednesday night, December 26th at a St. Louis hospice of complications from a heart attack suffered three weeks ago, her daughter, Neuka Mitchell, said. Bass had also suffered a series of strokes over the past seven years.

"She was an outgoing person," Mitchell said. "She had a very big personality. Any room she entered she just lit the room up, whether she was on stage or just going out to eat."

"Rescue Me" has been covered by many top artists, including Linda Ronstadt, Cher, Melissa Manchester and Pat Benatar. Franklin eventually sang a form of it, as "Deliver Me" in a Pizza Hut TV ad in 1991.

LOS ANGELES | Jack Klugman, the prolific, craggy-faced character actor and regular guy who was loved by millions as the messy one in TV's "The Odd Couple" and the crime-fighting coroner in "Quincy, M.E.," died Monday, December 24th, a son said. He was 90.

Klugman, who lost his voice to throat cancer in the 1980s and trained himself to speak again, died with his wife at his side.

"He had a great life and he enjoyed every moment of it and he would encourage others to do the same," son Adam Klugman said.

WASHINGTON | Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, the second-longest serving senator in U.S. history, has died at the age of 88, Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., announced early Monday evening (December 17th) on the Senate floor.

NEW DELHI | Ravi Shankar, the sitar virtuoso who became a hippie musical icon of the 1960s after hobnobbing with the Beatles and who introduced traditional Indian ragas to Western audiences over a 10-decade career, died Tuesday, December 11th. He was 92.

A statement on the musician's website said he died in San Diego, near his Southern California home. The musician's foundation issued a statement saying that he had suffered upper respiratory and heart problems and had undergone heart-valve replacement surgery last week.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also confirmed his death and called Shankar a "national treasure."

Labeled "the godfather of world music" by George Harrison, Shankar helped millions of classical, jazz and rock lovers discover the centuries-old traditions of Indian music.

He also pioneered the concept of the rock benefit with the 1971 Concert For Bangladesh. To later generations, he was known as the estranged father of popular American singer Norah Jones.

Jenni Rivera, the U.S.-born singer whose soulful voice and openness about her personal troubles made her a Mexican-American superstar, was killed in a plane crash in northern Mexico, the National Transportation Safety Board confirmed Monday, December 10th.

Born in Long Beach, Calif., Rivera was at the peak of her career as perhaps the most successful female singer in grupero, a male-dominated regional style influenced by the norteno, cumbia and ranchero styles.

A 43-year-old mother of five children and grandmother of two, the woman known as the "Diva de la Banda" was known for frank talk about her struggles to give a good life to her children despite a series of setbacks.

Brubeck died Wednesday morning, December 5th of heart failure after being stricken while on his way to a cardiology appointment with his son Darius, said his manager Russell Gloyd. Brubeck would have turned 92

LOS ANGELES | Deborah Raffin, an actress who ran a successful audiobook company with her ex-husband, has died. She was 59.

Raffin's brother, William, tells the Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/R0q9NM ) his sister died Wednesday of leukemia at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. She was diagnosed with the blood cancer about a year ago.

Raffin, the daughter of 20th Century Fox contract player Trudy Marhsall, had roles in movies such as "Forty Carats" and "Once Is Not Enough." She also starred in television miniseries, most notably playing actress Brooke Hayward in "Haywire."

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. | Russell Means, a former American Indian Movement activist who helped lead the 1973 uprising at Wounded Knee, reveled in stirring up attention and appeared in several Hollywood films, has died. He was 72.

Means died early Monday, October 22nd at his ranch in Porcupine, S.D., Oglala Sioux Tribe spokeswoman Donna Solomon said.

Means, a Wanblee native who grew up in the San Francisco area, announced in August 2011 that he had developed inoperable throat cancer. He told The Associated Press he was forgoing mainstream medical treatments in favor of traditional American Indian remedies and alternative treatments away from his home on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

WASHINGTON | Former Sen. George McGovern, the three-time Democratic presidential candidate who won his party's nomination in 1972 on an anti-war platform but lost in a landslide to President Richard Nixon, has died. He was 90.

A family spokesman said the former U.S. Senator died early Sunday morning, October 21st.

McGovern represented his home state of South Dakota for more than 20 years, first in the House of Representatives and then in the Senate, where he championed liberal social and economic reforms.

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Former U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, the outspoken Pennsylvania centrist whose switch from Republican to Democrat ended a 30-year career in which he played a pivotal role in several Supreme Court nominations, died Sunday, October 14th. He was 82.

Specter, who announced in late August that he was battling cancer, died at his home in Philadelphia from complications of non-Hodgkins lymphoma, said his son Shanin. Over the years, Arlen Specter had fought two previous bouts with Hodgkin's disease, overcome a brain tumor and survived cardiac arrest following bypass surgery.

BILOXI, Miss. (CBS NEWS) - Gary Collins, an actor, television show host and former master of ceremonies for the Miss America Pageant, has died. He was 74.

Collins, a resident of Biloxi, Mississippi, died of natural causes just before 1 a.m. Saturday after he was brought to Biloxi Regional Medical Center, according to Harrison County Coroner Gary Hargrove.

During the 1980s, Collins hosted the Miss America pageant, and played a beauty pageant host in the 2000 film "Beautiful."

(CBS NEWS) - Alex Karras was one of the NFL's most feared defensive tackles throughout the 1960s, a player who hounded quarterbacks and bulled past opposing linemen.

And yet, to many people he will always be the lovable dad from the 1980s sitcom "Webster" or the big cowboy who famously punched out a horse in "Blazing Saddles."

The rugged player, who anchored the Detroit Lions' defense and then made a successful transition to an acting career, with a stint along the way as a commentator on "Monday Night Football," died Wednesday. He was 77.

Antoine Ashley, who was known as Sahara Davenport on Logo's reality show "RuPaul's Drag Race," has died at the age of 27.

The network issued a statement via Facebook saying, "Logo is profoundly saddened by the passing of Antoine Ashley who fans around the world knew and loved as Sahara Davenport. He was an amazing artist and entertainer who'll be deeply missed by his Logo family. Our hearts and prayers go out to his family, especially his boyfriend Karl, in their time of need."

Ashley was on the reality competition show in 2010, during its second season. After the show, Ashley went on to release a single, "Go Off," which reached no. 35 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart.

(CBS/AP) LOS ANGELES - Johnny Lewis, the actor who played Kip "Half Sack" Epps on the cable TV show "Sons of Anarchy," fell to his death Wednesday after apparently beating his elderly landlady to death, authorities said.

(CBS/AP) NEW YORK - NFL Films President Steve Sabol, half of the father-son team that revolutionized sports broadcasting and mythologized pro football into the country's favorite sport, died Tuesday from brain cancer. He was 69.

In March 2011, Sabol was diagnosed with a tumor on the left side of his brain after being hospitalized for a seizure.

He started working with his father, Ed — NFL Films' founder — in 1964, and they introduced a series of innovations now taken for granted today, from slow-motion replays to sticking microphones on coaches and players.

(CBS/AP) LOS ANGELES - Michael Clarke Duncan, the hulking, prolific character actor whose dozens of films included an Oscar-nominated performance as a death row inmate in "The Green Mile" and such other box office hits as "Armageddon," ''Planet of the Apes" and "Kung Fu Panda," is dead at age 54.

Clarke died Monday morning, September 3rd at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he was being treated for a heart attack, said his fiance, reality TV personality Rev. Omarosa Manigault, in a statement released by publicist Joy Fehily.

LOS ANGELES (CBS/AP) — Hal David, who along with partner Burt Bacharach penned dozens of top 40 hits, including “Do You Know the Way to San Jose”, has died. He was 91.

David died of complications from a stroke Saturday morning on September 1st in Los Angeles, according to Jim Steinblatt, spokesman for the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. David was a longtime member and former president of ASCAP.

(CBS News) Jerry Nelson, a puppeteer who was known for playing numbers-obsessed Count von Count on "Sesame Street," has died, The Jim Henson Company confirms. He was 78.

"Jerry Nelson imbued all his characters with the same gentle, sweet whimsy and kindness that were a part of his own personality," said Lisa Henson, CEO of The Jim Henson Company, said in a statement on the company's Facebook page. "He joined The Jim Henson Company in the earliest years, and his unique contributions to the worlds of Fraggles, Muppets, Sesame Street and so many others are, and will continue to be, unforgettable.

LOS ANGELES (CBS SF/AP) – Singer Scott McKenzie, who performed “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)” — which became a hit in 1967 during the city’s “Summer of Love” — has died.

A statement on McKenzie’s website says the 73-year-old died on Saturday, August 18th in Los Angeles. McKenzie battled Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a disease that affects the nervous system, and had been in and out of the hospital since 2010.

(CBS News) Actor Ron Palillo, who played Arnold Horshack on the 1970s TV series "Welcome Back, Kotter," died Tuesday morning, August 14th. He was 63.

Officer Lovejoy of the Palm Beach Gardens Police Department confirmed Palillo's death to CBS News, noting that Palillo was transported from his Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.-area home to a nearby hospital, where he died.

Helen Gurley Brown, the editor who made Cosmopolitan magazine into a single girl's handbook of sex and glamour, died Monday, August 13th after a brief hospitalization in New York, according to the Hearst Corporation. She was 90.

According to an announcement on the Fat Wreck Chords website, Tony Sly of No Use For A Name has passed away at the age of 41. No cause of death was released.

Fat Mike, Fat Wreck Chords owner and NOFX frontman, said, “One of my dearest friends and favorite song writers has gone way too soon. Tony, you will be greatly missed.”

“It is with great sorrow that we must say goodbye to Tony Sly of No Use For A Name. We received a call earlier today of his passing, and are devastated. We have lost an incredible talent, friend, and father – one of the true greats,” continues the statement.

(CBS SF/AP) — Gore Vidal, the author, playwright, politician and commentator whose novels, essays, plays and opinions were stamped by his immodest wit and unconventional wisdom, has died at the age of 86, his nephew said Tuesday.

Vidal died at his home in the Hollywood Hills at about 6:45 p.m. Tuesday of complications from pneumonia, Burr Steers said. Vidal had been living alone in the home and had been sick for "quite a while," he said.

(CBS/AP) Tony Martin, the romantic singer who appeared in movie musicals from the 1930s to the 1950s and sustained a career in records, television and nightclubs from the Depression era into the 21st century, died Friday, July 27th. He was 98.

Martin died of natural causes Friday evening at his West Los Angeles home, his friend and accountant Beverly Scott said Monday.

A peer of Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra, Martin sang full voice in a warm baritone that carried special appeal for his female audience. Among his hit recordings were "I Get Ideas," "To Each His Own," "Begin the Beguine" and "There's No Tomorrow."

(CBS/AP) Veteran actress Lupe Ontiveros, who appeared in scores of TV shows and movies including "Desperate Housewives," "Selena" and "As Good As It Gets," has died. She was 69.

Ontiveros died Thursday, July 27th at a hospital in Whittier, Calif., a suburb southeast of Los Angeles, after a brief battle with liver cancer, according to longtime friend and family spokesman Jerry Velasco.

LOS ANGELES (CBS SF/AP) - Chad Everett, the blue-eyed star of the 1970s TV series "Medical Center" who went on to appear in such films and TV shows as "Mulholland Drive" and "Melrose Place," has died. He was 75.

Everett's daughter, Katherine Thorp, said he died Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles after a year-and-a-half-long battle with lung cancer.

Everett played sensitive doctor Joe Gannon for seven years on "Medical Center." The role earned him two Golden Globes and an Emmy nomination.

With a career spanning more than 40 years, Everett guest starred on such TV series as "The Love Boat," "Murder, She Wrote" and "Without a Trace." Everett most recently appeared in the TV series "Castle." His films credits included "The Jigsaw Murders," "The Firechasers" and director Gus Van Sant's "Psycho."

(CBS News) Sherman Hemsley, who played George Jefferson on "The Jeffersons," died on Tuesday, July 24th. CBS affiliate KDBC confirmed Tuesday that the actor was found dead at his home in El Paso, Texas. He was 74.

LOS ANGELES (CBS NEWS) — The Oscar-winning screenwriter of "Dog Day Afternoon" and "Cool Hand Luke" has died. Frank Pierson's family said he died of natural causes on Monday, July 23rd in Los Angeles after a short illness. He was 87.

(CBS/AP) Kitty Wells, the first female superstar of country music, has died at the age of 92.

The singer's family says Wells died at her home Monday after complications from a stroke.

Her recording of "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" in 1952 was the first No. 1 hit by a female artist on the country music charts. Her other hits included "Making Believe" and a version of "I Can't Stop Loving You."

(AP) NEW YORK - Celeste Holm, a versatile, bright-eyed blonde who soared to Broadway fame in "Oklahoma!" and won an Oscar in "Gentleman's Agreement" but whose last years were filled with financial difficulty and estrangement from her sons, died Sunday, July 15th, a relative said. She was 95.

LOS ANGELES (CBS SF/AP) - Film producer Richard Zanuck, who won the best picture Oscar for "Driving Miss Daisy" and was involved in such blockbuster films as "Jaws" and "The Sting" after his father, Hollywood mogul Darryl F. Zanuck, fired him from 20th Century Fox, died Friday, July 13th. He was 77.

(Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Sage Stallone

(1976-2012)

(CBS/AP) Sage Stallone, the 36-year-old son of actor Sylvester Stallone, has been found dead, a lawyer confirms to CBS News.

George Braunstein, Sage Stallone's attorney, tells CBS News Friday, July 13th, that Sage was found dead at his Hollywood home.

LOS ANGELES (CBS SF/AP) - Ernest Borgnine, the beefy screen star known for blustery, often villainous roles, but who won the best-actor Oscar for playing against type as a lovesick butcher in "Marty" in 1955, died Sunday, July 8th. He was 95.

His longtime spokesman, Harry Flynn, told The Associated Press that Borgnine died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center with his family by his side.

Television fans loved Borgnine as the scheming Navy officer in the sitcom "McHale's Navy." Borgnine was also known as the heavy who beats up Frank Sinatra in "From Here to Eternity" and one of the thugs who menaces Spencer Tracy in "Bad Day at Block Rock."

DARE COUNTY, N.C. (CBS Charlotte) — Television legend Andy Griffith has died at the age of 86, CBS News confirms.

Griffith starred in the groundbreaking “The Andy Griffith Show” which aired from 1960 until 1968 on CBS. The show also featured Don Knotts and a young Ron Howard and took place in the fictional town of Mayberry, N.C.

(CBS/AP) Don Grady, who was one of television's most beloved big brothers as Robbie Douglas on the long-running 1960s hit "My Three Sons," died Wednesday. He was 68.

His "My Three Sons" co-star Barry Livingston, who played youngest brother Ernie, confirmed Grady's death to The Associated Press. Livingston said Grady had been suffering from cancer and receiving hospice care at his home in Thousand Oaks, Calif.

Nicholas Latimer of Alfred A. Knopf confirmed to the Associated Press earlier Tuesday her deteriorating condition hours after celebrity columnist and friend Liz Smith published what appeared to be a memorial for the writer.

(CBS News) Actress Yvette Wilson of the '90s sitcom "Moesha" has died after battling cervical cancer, according to reports. She was 48. A friend of the actress told CNN that Wilson died on Thursday around 7 p.m.

(CBS/AP) Ann Rutherford, the demure brunette actress who played the sweetheart in the long-running Andy Hardy series and Scarlett O'Hara's youngest sister in "Gone With the Wind," died Monday, June 11, 2012. She was 94.

LOS ANGELES (CBS SF/AP) - Richard Dawson, the wisecracking British entertainer who was among the schemers in the 1960s TV comedy "Hogan's Heroes" and a decade later began kissing thousands of female contestants as host of the game show "Family Feud" has died. He was 79.

Dawson, also known to TV fans as the Cockney prisoner-of-war Cpl. Peter Newkirk on "Hogan's Heroes," died Saturday night from complications related to esophageal cancer at Ronald Reagan Memorial Hospital, his son Gary said.

The game show, which initially ran from 1976 to 1985, pitted families who tried to guess the most popular answers to poll questions such as "What do people give up when they go on a diet?"

Dawson won a daytime Emmy Award in 1978 as best TV game show host. Tom Shales of The Washington Post called him "the fastest, brightest and most beguilingly caustic interlocutor since the late great Groucho bantered and parried on `You Bet Your Life.'" The show was so popular it was released as both daytime and syndicated evening versions.

He was known for kissing each woman contestant, and at the time the show bowed out in 1985, executive producer Howard Felsher estimated that Dawson had kissed "somewhere in the vicinity of 20,000."

"I kissed them for luck and love, that's all," Dawson said at the time.
He reprised his game show character in a much darker mood in the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger film "The Running Man," playing the host of a deadly TV show set in a totalitarian future, where convicts try to escape as their executioners stalk them. "Saturday Night Live" mocked him in the 1970s, with Bill Murray portraying him as leering and nasty, even slapping one contestant (John Belushi) for getting too fresh.

The British-born actor already had gained fame as the fast-talking Newkirk in "Hogan's Heroes," the CBS comedy about prisoners in a Nazi POW camp who hoodwink their captors and run the place themselves.

Despite its unlikely premise, the show made the ratings top 10 in its first season, 1965-66, and ran until 1971.

Both "Hogan's Heroes" and "Family Feud" have had a second life in recent years, the former on DVD reissues and the latter on cable television's GSN, formerly known as the Game Show Network.

On Dawson's last "Family Feud" in 1985, the studio audience honored him with a standing ovation, and he responded: "Please sit down. I have to do at least 30 minutes of fun and laughter and you make me want to cry."

"I've had the most incredible luck in my career," he told viewers.

"I never dreamed I would have a job in which so many people could touch me and I could touch them," he said. That triggered an unexpected laugh.

Producers brought out "The New Family Feud," starring comedian Ray Combs, in 1988. Six years later, Dawson replaced Combs at the helm, but that lasted only one season.

According to the Internet Movie Database, Dawson was born Colin Lionel Emm in 1932 in Gosport, England. His first wife was actress Diana Dors, the blond bombshell who was Britain's answer to Marilyn Monroe.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)(credit: Newsmakers/Getty Images)

Doc Watson

(1923-2012)

Doc Watson, the Grammy-award winning folk musician whose lightning-fast style of flatpicking influenced guitarists around the world for more than a half-century, died Tuesday, May 29, 2012 at a hospital in Winston-Salem, according to a hospital spokeswoman and his manager. He was 89.

(CBS/AP) Janet Carroll, who played the mother of Tom Cruise's character in the 1983 film "Risky Business," died. She was 71.

Carroll's son, George Brown, said the actress died Tuesday, May 22, 2012 in New York after a long illness.

Born in Chicago, the classically-trained actress worked steadily since that breakthrough role with Cruise in 1983. Her film credits include "Family Business," with Sean Connery and Matthew Broderick, and "Memories of Me" with Billy Crystal.

DANBURY, Conn. (CBS/AP) - Maurice Sendak, the children's book author and illustrator who saw the sometimes-dark side of childhood in books like "Where the Wild Things Are" and "In the Night Kitchen," died early Tuesday. He was 83.

Longtime friend and caretaker Lynn Caponera said she was with him when Sendak died at a hospital in Danbury, Conn. She said he had a stroke on Friday and never regained consciousness.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — George Lindsey, who spent nearly 30 years as the grinning Goober on "The Andy Griffith Show" and "Hee Haw," died, May 6, 2012. He was 83.

A press release from Marshall-Donnelly-Combs Funeral Home in Nashville said Lindsay died early Sunday morning after a brief illness. Funeral arrangements were still being made.

Lindsey was the beanie-wearing Goober on "The Andy Griffith Show" from 1964 to 1968 and its successor, "Mayberry RFD," from 1968 to 1971. He played the same jovial character — a service station attendant — on "Hee Haw" from 1971 until it went out of production in 1993.

Adam Yauch, also known as MCA of the iconic Brooklyn hip-hop trio the Beastie Boys, passed away Friday, May 4th after a long battle with cancer. He told fans about his condition in July of 2009 via a YouTube video.

Television and radio personality Dick Clark died Wednesday after suffering a massive heart attack.

“Entertainment Icon Dick Clark passed away Wednesday morning, April 18th, 2012 at the age of 82 following a massive heart attack it was announced by his family,” his publicist said in a statement to CBS2. “Clark, 82, had entered St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica last night for an outpatient procedure. Attempts to resuscitate were unsuccessful. He is survived by his wife Kari and his three children, RAC, Duane and Cindy.”

ALBANY, N.Y. (CBS SF/AP) - Levon Helm, a key member of the seminal rock group The Band who lent his distinctively Southern voice to classics like "The Weight" and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," has died at age 71.Helm's website says he died peacefully Thursday afternoon, April 19th, 2012.

Helm and his band mates were musical virtuosos who mined the roots of American music in the late 1960s as other rockers veered into psychedelia, heavy metal and jams. The group's 1968 debut, "Music From the Big Pink," remains a landmark album of the era.

The Band bid farewell to live performances with a bang with its famous "Last Waltz" concert in 1976.

Some fans considered Richard Manuel The Band's lead singer. But for many admirers, that honor belonged to the short, feisty Helm.

(Photo by Rick Diamond/Getty Images)

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Mike Wallace

(1918-2012)

NEW YORK (CBS/AP) - CBS newsman Mike Wallace, the dogged, merciless reporter and interviewer who took on politicians, celebrities and other public figures in a 60-year career highlighted by the on-air confrontations that helped make "60 Minutes" the most successful prime-time television news program ever, has died. He was 93.

Wallace died Saturday, April 7th, CBS spokesman Kevin Tedesco said. On CBS' "Face the Nation," host Bob Schieffer said Wallace died at a care facility in New Haven, Conn., where he had lived in recent years.

Artist Thomas Kinkade, whose brushwork paintings of idyllic landscapes, cottages and churches have been big sellers for dealers across the United States, died Friday, April 6th, 2012, a family spokesman said.

Kinkade, 54, died at his home in Los Gatos of what appeared to be natural causes, David Satterfield said.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (CBS/AP) - Bluegrass legend and banjo pioneer Earl Scruggs, who helped profoundly change country music with Bill Monroe and later with guitarist Lester Flatt, died Wednesday, March 28th, 2012. He was 88.

An Oakland jazz trumpeter famous for his ability to bridge distinct styles, died Friday after several years with lung cancer. Up until three weeks, ago, the 63-year-old was still teaching Oaktown Jazz Workshops, the youth music program he founded in 1994. He opened a downtown venue for workshop students named after his mother, Nadine, last year.

Longtime Doobie Brothers drummer Michael Hossack, whose work is heard on the hits “Listen To The Music” and “China Grove,” died of cancer at age 65, his manager said.

Hossack died Monday, March 12th, 2012 at his home in Dubois, Wyo., manager Bruce Cohn said in a statement

Hossack played with the group – whose origins were in San Jose – from 1971 to 1973 and rejoined in 1987. He stopped performing with the band two years ago while struggling with his health, “Mike has always been a part of my musical life and the life of the Doobie Brothers,” said band co-founder Tom Johnston. “He was an incredible musician.”

LONDON (CBS/AP) - Robert B. Sherman, one half of the award-winning duo who penned memorable songs for "Mary Poppins," "The Jungle Book" and "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" - as well "It's a Small World (After All)" - has died.

Sherman's agent, Stella Richards, said Tuesday that Sherman died peacefully in London on Monday, March 5, 2012. He was 86.

LOS ANGELES (CBS SF/AP) - Caustic commentator Andrew Breitbart was loved and hated. The conservative media publisher and activist who died Thursday, March 1st, was embraced by anti-tax, conservative tea partiers and reviled by liberals for his Internet investigations that brought down politicians and chastised mainstream journalism.

Breitbart's website, bigjournalism.com, said Thursday he died of natural causes. He was walking near his house in the Brentwood neighborhood shortly after midnight when he collapsed, said actor Orson Bean, his father-in-law. Breitbart is survived by his wife, Susannah Bean Breitbart, and four children. He was 43.

(Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

Davy Jones

(1945-2012)

(CBS News) Monkees lead singer Davy Jones died February 29th, according to the medical examiner's office in Martin County, Fla. He was 66.

A spokesman at the medical office confirmed to CBSNews.com that it had received word of his death. "A possible autopsy may be performed after evaluation of the circumstances of the death and medical information," the spokesperson said. The website TMZ first reported the death, saying Jones had suffered a heart attack.

The Monkees member has been on the road and performed in New York City just this week.

NEW YORK (CBS/AP) - Hall of Fame catcher Gary Carter, whose single for the New York Mets in the 1986 World Series touched off one of the most improbable rallies in baseball, died Thursday, February 16. He was 57.

Carter was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor last May, two weeks after finishing his second season as coach at Palm Beach Atlantic University.

He also added 12 years with the Expos and one apiece with the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers.

(Photo by Rick Stewart/Getty Images)

Freddie Solomon

(1953—2012)

The former Miami Dolphins and San Francisco 49ers wide receiver who became known as “Fabulous Freddie” and committed himself to community service for decades, died Monday, February 13, 2012. He was 59.

The Irish actor who played Grandpa Joe Bucket in the 2005 Tim Burton remake of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" died Sunday, February 12, 2012.

Kelly, also famous for his naked motorcycle ride in the 1998 film "Waking Ned Devine" died after a short illness.

Kelly's list of film credits also includes "The Italian Job" in 1969, "Into The West," "Laws of Attraction," "Stardust," and "Agent Cody Banks 2" (classic).

He was married to actress Laurie Morton and had two children. He was 82.

(Photo by ShowBizIreland.com/Getty Images)

Whitney Houston

(1963-2012)

LOS ANGELES - Whitney Houston, who ruled as pop music's queen until her majestic voice and regal image were ravaged by drug use, erratic behavior and a tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown, died, Saturday, February 11, 2012. She was staying at the Beverly Hilton Hotel for the 54th Annual Grammy Awards. She was 48.

NEW YORK (CBS/AP) - Ben Gazzara, whose powerful dramatic performances brought an intensity to a variety of roles and made him a memorable presence in films, on television and on Broadway in the original "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," died on Friday, February 3rd at the age of 81.

Longtime family friend Suzanne Mados said Gazzara died Friday in Manhattan. Mados, who owned the Wyndham Hotel, where celebrities such as Peter Falk and Martin Sheen stayed, said he died after being placed in hospice care for cancer. She and her husband helped marry Gazzara and his wife at their hotel.

SHERMAN OAKS (CBS) — ”Soul Train” creator Don Cornelius was found dead in his Sherman Oaks home at 4:00am Wednesday morning, February 1st.

Law enforcement officials say Cornelius was discovered with a gunshot wound to the head, and TMZ is reporting that his death is being investigated as an apparent suicide.

Soul Train debuted in 1971 and ran until 2006.

Cornelius, who hosted the show from 1971 to 1993, ended each episode with: “And you can bet your last money, it’s all gonna be a stone gas, honey! I’m Don Cornelius, and as always in parting, we wish you love, peace and soul!”

Cornelius pleaded no contest to misdemeanor domestic violence in 2008, two years before he and his wife divorced.

Sources say he had been in poor health for the past few years.

He was 75 years old.

(Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Ian Abercrombie

(1934–2012)

LOS ANGELES (CBS SF/AP) - Ian Abercrombie (pictured left), a veteran British stage and screen actor whose TV roles included Elaine's boss Mr. Pitt on "Seinfeld" and the voice of Chancellor Palpatine in "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," has died. He was 77.

A website statement from San Francisco-based LucasArts said Abercrombie died Friday. A friend, Cathy Lind Hayes, told the Los Angeles Times that he died at a Los Angeles hospital from complications of kidney failure and recently had been diagnosed with lymphoma.

"Though he played a villain on our show, you would be hard pressed to meet a kinder person," said Dave Filoni, a supervising director for "Clone Wars." "He loved to laugh and his sense of humor always lightened our record sessions. I will miss his stories, I will miss his performances, and I will miss his contribution to our show."

Abercrombie began his career as a dancer and made his American stage debut in a 1951 production of "Stalag 17."

He appeared in the film "Army of Darkness" and on such TV shows as "Wizards of Waverly Place" and "Birds of Prey," in which he played Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne's butler.

He also voiced the worldly owl Ambrose in the animated movie "Rango" starring Johnny Depp.

(Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

Robert Hegyes

(1951-2012)

METUCHEN, N.J. (AP) - Robert Hegyes, the actor best known for playing Jewish Puerto Rican student Juan Epstein on the 1970s TV show "Welcome Back Kotter" has died. He was 60.

The Flynn & Son Funeral Home in Fords, N.J., said it was informed of Hegyes' death Thursday, January 26, by the actor's family. Read more...

NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 10: Robert Hegyes (pictured) accepts the 35th Anniversary Award for "Welcome Back, Kotter" onstage at the 9th Annual TV Land Awards at the Javits Center on April 10, 2011 in New York City.

(Photo by Larry Busacca/Getty Images)

James Farentino

(1938–2012)

LOS ANGELES (CBS/AP) - Actor James Farentino, named Golden Globes' most promising newcomer in 1967, died Tuesday in a Los Angeles hospital, according to a family spokesman. He was 73.

Brooklyn-born Farentino, who appeared in dozens of movies and TV shows and even earned an Emmy nod for his performance as Saint Peter, died of heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Hospital after a long illness, said the spokesman, Bob Palmer.

He also had recurring roles on "Dynasty," "Melrose Place," "The Bold Ones: The Lawyers" and even played George Clooney's estranged father on "ER."

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (CBS SF/AP) - Paterno, a sainted figure at Penn State for almost half a century but scarred forever by the child sex abuse scandal that brought his career to a stunning end, died Sunday, January 22nd at age 85.

His death came just over two months after his son Scott announced on November 18th that his father had been diagnosed with a treatable form of lung cancer. The cancer was found during a follow-up visit for a bronchial illness. A few weeks later, Paterno broke his pelvis after a fall but did not need surgery. Read more...

(Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)

Etta James

(1938–2012)

Etta James, the legendary singer whose enduring hits include “At Last” and “Tell Mama,” has died Friday, January 20, 2012 at the age of 73.

Etta James' performance of the enduring classic "At Last" was the embodiment of refined soul: Angelic-sounding strings harkened the arrival of her passionate yet measured vocals as she sang tenderly about a love finally realized after a long and patient wait.

Canadian freestyle skier Sarah Burke, who died Thursday, January 19, 2012 at the age of 29 in a Utah hospital, was remembered by competitors and friends as a pioneer among freeskiers who "inspired them to do greater things."